Cooper: Members Must Make Lame Duck Fly

A LOT OF HISTORY WILL BE MADE IN THIS LAME-DUCK SESSION OF CONGRESS. WE ARE THE HISTORY-MAKERS. CAMPAIGNS ARE OVER; ITíS TIME TO ACT.

Urgency: Every day that we wait to craft a 10-year deficit reduction plan costs America an additional $11 billion. Thatís right, every week of delay results in a fiscal gap that is $77 billion larger. Waiting until January makes our problems $660 billion worse. Our annual deficits donít tell the whole story; the fiscal gap is much larger.

Lame Duck Must Fly: The faster we act, the easier our fiscal problems are to solve. Waiting until January ó the next session of Congress ó will only make our jobs more difficult and our chance of success lower.

Think Big: Our entitlement programs need reform, just like our tax code. These are huge issues that Congress is not used to dealing with. As a great architect once wrote: ďMake no little plans. They have no magic to stir menís blood and probably themselves will not be realized. Make big plans, aim high in hope and work, remembering that a noble, logical [plan] will never die.Ē

Put America First: Donít make any pledges other than the oath of office. If you have already pledged, realize that America is facing an economic emergency that voids other pledges. The Congressional Budget Office has already said that gridlock means another recession. We donít need higher unemployment or another downgrade of our Treasury bonds. Voters will never forgive us if we keep bickering. Our retiring and defeated colleagues are obviously free to put their country first. But all of us should know that the best way to help our voters back home is to strengthen America. We must all show courage.

We Are the Leaders: Understand your power as a backbencher. You elect your party leaders in Congress, and they are afraid of you. When you duck, they duck. Cut them some slack. Give them a chance to negotiate. Give them the leeway to cut deals that we, individually, might not like. If your leaders are not willing to lead, get new leaders. The time for small-ball, tactical politics is finished.

Campaigns Are Over: Delete your talking points. Stop thinking in sound bites. Putting America back on track will be much more popular with voters two years from now than any grandstanding is today. It is hard to get out of the campaign mindset, especially when we House members run permanent campaigns. But you will never be further from the next election than you are today, and voters want results.

Time to Govern: How do you start cooperating? It is hard to respect colleagues in the other party whom we have spent so much time and money bashing, but now we must. Voters are demanding that we work together. You donít have to like your colleagues to negotiate with them. You do have to realize that we are all in the same boat, and that our boat is taking on water ó and that millions of Americans think that Congress is the problem.

Compromise Is Not a Dirty Word: Compromise is not surrender. Finding an acceptable, principled answer to our national problems is our job description. Playing the blame game is not.

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March 13, 2015

Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call

Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., right, hugs Harold Schaitberger, General President of the International Association of Fire Fighters, after the Congressman spoke at the IAFF's Legislative Conference General Session at the Hyatt Regency on Capitol Hill, March 9, 2015. The day featured addresses by members of Congress and Vice President Joe Biden.